Hacksaw Ridge is a film based on the true story of Desmond T. Doss, a Christian army medic during WWII who, despite refusing to even touch weapons, saved 75 men during the Battle of Okinawa without firing a single shot.
Hacksaw Ridge is a pretty straightforward film that wasn’t particularly entertaining and lacked any real depth. The main character is a contentious objecter, is bullied for being one when he joins the Army, ends up performing a heroic deed, earns the respect of his comrades including his former main tormentor. The end. Anyone that has seen a movie before could have written this. The simplicity wouldn’t have been so bad if the film had been entertaining. But, given the predictability of the film and its beats, the performances and movie itself didn’t pull me in enough to make me ignore those issues. It was just so bland. Andrew Garfield does give a decent performance as Doss but his performance in Silence has much more depth and allows him to flaunt his full range as an actor.
One area where the film did shine was in Gibson’s choice to depict war for the brutal, gory affair that it is. It was a great decision and surely helped some of the audience to better appreciate the weight of Doss’ beliefs and decisions. War is often portrayed on film as heroic and easy and relatively clean but the battle scenes here are anything but. Seeing the graphic violence, injuries, and death is how I’ve always wanted to see war on the big screen in a culture that celebrates and takes it extremely lightly.
Image: Summit Entertainment
